p On July 7, 1937, Japanese troops provoked an incident will) Chinese forces in the area not far from Peking. Thai was the start of the Japanese invasion of North and then Central China.

p The Japanese government had worked out a plan to establish Japanese domination of Eastern Asia—"Basic Principles of National Policy”. First, of all, the Japanese militarists intended to capture North China and then the rest of China. Japan proposed to swell her armed forces stationed in Korea and Manchuria so as, subsequently attacking the USSR, "strike a decisive blow at the Russians at the very outbreak of the war”. They planned, besides, to penetrate the South Seas area. It was found necessary to speed up and bring off the preparation of Japan’s Armed Forces for war in order to achieve all those designs. ^^119^^

p The Japanese ruling quarters believed that the intervention by Germany and Italy in Spain created a favourable context for their aggressive plans to be carried out. The U.S. Under Secretary of State Sumner Welles pointed out in that connection that the "bandit nations drew together, their respective policies became more and more clearly synchronised". ^^12^^°

p Once through with her preparations, Japan set about carrying out her far-reaching plans of aggrandizement in July 1037. That was how the Japan-China war started.

p It was one of the conflagrations later to become part of the Second World War.

p The Soviet government clearly realised the full gravity of the situation as it shaped up both in Europe and in the Far East. Jzveslia unequivocally put the question: "Peace or War?" in its leading article "Against War, Against Fascism”. This question, the paper pointed out, sounds today as ominous as never before for it is agitating the minds of millions of people anxious about their future.^^121^^

p Japan’s aggressive action was exacerbating the international situation and seriously affected the interests of the monopolies of the United States, Britain and France. The 122 Anglo-Franco-American alignment was potentially far stronger than Japan. Joint action by these three powers could have deterred the aggressors. All the more so since Japan’s war plans could have been nipped in the bud, should the U.S., Britain and France have established co-operation with the Soviet Union. The governments of the three powers, however, wanted no trucks with the USSR, although they were thereby undermining their own positions.

p The reactionary quarters of the Western powers still hoped that the war between Japan and the USSR would begin sooner or later. And in that case, they presumed, Japan would have to stop her expansion into the areas where she would be threatening the interests of the United States, Britain and France. Moreover, the Western powers expected that such a war would certainly weaken both the USSR and Japan which would give the United States, Britain and France an opportunity not only to maintain their positions in the Far East, hut even reinforce them.

p British imperialists kept on conniving at aggression in the Far East as well as in Europe. They clearly sought a compromise arrangement with Japan at China’s expense. However, they were not averse to their interests being defended by others. It was a war between Japan and the USSR that, as stated earlier on, suited Britain most of all.

The United States thought its interest to be far more hurt by Japan’s actions in China than by the Italian aggression in Ethiopia, the German and Italian intervention in Spain and other developments in Europe. Japan was the United States’ major imperialist rival. Nevertheless, the U.S. also took up a rather restrained position over the Japanese invasion of China. The U.S. ruling circles feared, in particular, that should it have joined the war against Japan, Britain and France would shift its brunt to the United States. This led to the U.S. together with Britain and France conniving at Japanese aggression. Measures, taken by the U.S., Britain and France in connection with the Japanese aggression boiled down to an attempt at somehow protecting their major interests in China by means of an imperialist collusion with Japan. The ruling quarters of those countries did not so much as contemplate any defence of China’s interests or any assistance to it in resisting the Japanese invasion. On the contrary, the imperialist powers 123 feared that the Chinese, should they have succeeded in healing back Lliu Japanese imperialist incursion, could have also expelled other colonialists from their country.